Stage Stores shrinks loss and revenue in Q1

Houston – Stage Stores Inc. beat Wall Street expectations with a loss but missed with decidedly revenue in the first quarter of fiscal 2015. The retailer reported net loss of $8.64 million, an improvement from a net loss of $18.79 million the same quarter a year earlier.



High cost of sales and selling, general and administrative (SG&A) expenses helped drive the loss. Net sales fell slightly to $369.31 million from $372.04 million. Same-store sales dropped 1.1%, due in part to a Mother’s Day marketing shift. In one bright spot, direct-to-consumer sales rose 31%.



“We delivered expanded merchandise margins and grew our direct-to-consumer business by 31%, while controlling our expenses,” said Michael Glazer, president and CEO. “We are thrilled with our record Mother’s Day sales, which moved our year-to-date comp sales into positive territory after 14 weeks. As we look ahead, we remain confident that we will deliver our expected sales and earnings growth in 2015.”



Stage Stores reiterated prior guidance of same-store sales expected to be in a range of flat to up 2% for fiscal 2015.